Per Red Yeti's FB page:We're looking for some help. We are looking for a recent grad, or soon to be grad, of a local culinary school to be considered as our Executive Chef. This will be a very cool opportunity for someone who wants to make a name for themselves here at home, and not New York. We want someone who wants to grow with us, in charge of menu, kitchen, ordering...everything. Recent grad or soon to be grad only please. If you know someone, have them send us a message and we will reach out. Thanks!

Why would you want a recent grad or soon to be culinary school grad that has no real on the job experience? Personally, to me that reeks of not having the budget to pay someone for their expertise...I also think that would be a huge mistake on their part trusting some one with their money with purchasing ability with out the knowledge that only years of experience can provide that can't be taught...Even if it is just a coffee house. Just my .02

Dan Thomas wrote:Why would you want a recent grad or soon to be culinary school grad that has no real on the job experience? Personally, to me that reeks of not having the budget to pay someone for their expertise...I also think that would be a huge mistake on their part trusting some one with their money with purchasing ability with out the knowledge that only years of experience can provide that can't be taught...Even if it is just a coffee house. Just my .02

I want to add my 2 cents also. . I am not saying this is the case here, but I have seen places who would rather hire 2 $25K a year chefs with no experience rather than one $40-$50k yearly seasoned chef who can do twice the work of the two green chefs with twice the quality. FYI for all who are hiring chefs, you get what you pay for.

Where I've seen this happen often is when the owners are not looking for a seasoned chef with his/her own ideas about food, but instead want someone who will do what they are told and not try to reinvent the menu or the kitchen operations.

The ad says otherwise, but they are a bit too insistent upon it being a recent or soon to be grad for my tastes. Also, it is a bit brash to suggest that this opportunity is one to "make a name for yourself." If you are good enough, you can make a name for yourself anywhere.

From the "benefit of a doubt" column, maybe they are just looking to give someone fresh out of school a chance. If so, I can think of 3 better ways to handle it, though...

And just how did you "professionals" get your start???This post was intended to help a new chef get their start, not instigate unnecessary negativity. Perhaps you could offer your valuable advice directly to Red Yeti?

Lisa Stephenson wrote:And just how did you "professionals" get your start???This post was intended to help a new chef get their start, not instigate unnecessary negativity. Perhaps you could offer your valuable advice directly to Red Yeti?

Yeah, I was just thinking that the cheffy skillz on display here might not have been matched by social suave ...

My reply was more out of voicing a concern that someone might not be making the best business decision when it comes to opening a new place. I personally didn't take on my first executive chef role until I was in my 30's after working in the business for 12 or so years and after several stages as a sous chef. And trust me, I still had several bumps in the road and hard lessons to learn along the way. I have been on the opening team of several brand new ventures during my time in food service and I do know from experience that opening a new restaurant is one of the hardest things I've ever done. I also can count on one finger the only person I've ever known that has successfully taken on an executive chef role straight out of culinary school. I can also count on all my fingers and toes the number of seemingly, well qualified chefs who didn't cut the mustard when they were hired to open a new place, myself included. I'm not knocking the value of a culinary education by any means, even though I'm not formally trained. You simply just cannot teach someone a real kitchen sense of urgency, good hiring and purchasing practices in a classroom environment. Also, from experience, I've witnessed that there is a tendency of the young cook fresh out of school that will think that since they are now the Chef or Sous Chef that they aren't required to work the line or help clean up at the end of shifts. Personally, If they are insistent on some fresh faced and eager young gun straight out of school, I would also hire a consulting chef for the first 3-4 months or so, with some real world experience to work side by side with their newly hired culinary grad. That way there is some one to help guide them with things like hiring the staff, building good relationships with purveyors, those frighteningly expensive first initial orders and costing out and designing a menu that can be properly executed with the equipment and space that this new establishment will have.

Last edited by Dan Thomas on Mon May 06, 2013 12:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Dan Thomas wrote:My reply was more out of voicing a concern that someone might not be making the best business decision when it comes to opening a new place.

Dan, all that would be fine in the main forum. Here, it seems a little more like a hijacking. I didn't mean to be mean, but honestly, in this section your response came across as out of place. A PM to the original poster might have been more appropriate.

Robin Garr wrote:...all that would be fine in the main forum.... ...A PM to the original poster might have been more appropriate.

Note, though, that the job description in the original post did not originate with the original poster - she was merely reporting an entry on the new brewing concern's FB page. So, I don't see it as a hijacking at all. A PM to the OP would have been useless because the OP is not looking to fill the position and, therefore, would not benefit from the comments of three experienced chefs.

I am not even remotely in the biz, but I too thought it silly to expect "a recent grad, or soon to be grad" from culinary school (which is repeated twice for emphasis in the FB post) to fill an Executive Chef position.

Personally, I really enjoy the perspectives offered by the chefs in this forum, and by Dan Thomas in particular, and I hate to see their commentary discouraged.

In deference to your suggestion, I will offer to start a thread on the subject in the main forum, on a restaurant-anonymous basis. I will word it such that you could "go behind the curtain" and move all of the comments here after the OP to the new thread, so the discussion can continue there and "recent grads" can apply for the FB-advertised Executive Chef position described here. Reasonable compromise?

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